“I’ll do or say anything if I believe in it, but I have to believe in the cause.”

In many ways, Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) personifies the perfect politician: frighteningly slick, irresistibly charismatic and, most importantly, capable to aspire idealism with a foot on the ground. He is young but more experienced than his more senior peers. He has seen it all and he has been through it all. And yet, he finds the capacity to believe in Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney) in the quest to clinch the Democratic nomination. The events that unfold in The Ides Of March, revolving around the decisive Ohio primary, will test his conviction and follow his transformation into the ultimate politician.

As the film follows Meyers’ trajectory, not Morris’, it wisely treats the primary as a backdrop, not the main arena itself. The film assumes that every character chooses to act in the most ruthless…